Far Cry New Dawn: Australian release date, pre-orders, pricing and more

The series that has ventured to a deserted island, the Central African savannah and the Mesolithic Age will take us to post-apocalyptic Montana with Far Cry New Dawn.

For those unfamiliar with Far Cry lore, the previous game, Far Cry 5, ended with a nuclear Armageddon. Far Cry New Dawn is set 17 years after these catastrophic events.

You will prowl the post-apocalyptic wasteland and lead a band of survivors against evil bandits, sinister Highwaymen and mutated creatures. As usual, you’ll be faced with an open world and a bunch of outposts to liberate, weapons to buy and allies to team up with.

The gameplay will be standard Far Cry fare, but there are a few additions to look forward to. You will have unprecedented control of your character, with the new ability to customise your gender, appearance and clothing.

Far Cry New Dawn looks like it will be a smaller-scale spin-off in the vein of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon or Far Cry: Primal. Fans can expect the fun, familiar Far Cry experience that they’ve grown to love when it is released on February 15 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

You’ll have to fight for your life – and to conquer the wasteland (Image: Ubisoft)

Pre-orders

Far Cry New Dawn is currently available to pre-order from retailers across the country. As with most games that are announced now, you will be able to purchase the standard, limited or deluxe edition.

Standard Edition

Players that pre-order the standard edition will receive the base game and a bonus Unicorn Trike skin at launch.

Superbloom Edition

The Far Cry New Dawn Superbloom Edition is exclusive to EB Games in Australia and includes an exclusive steel-book and the Hurk Legacy Pack containing a machine gun skin, a vehicle skin and a new outfit for your character.

The Far Cry New Dawn deluxe edition includes the Knight and Hurk packs as well as exclusive weapons (Image: Ubisoft)

What to expect from Far Cry New Dawn

As hinted at earlier, Far Cry New Dawn is kind of an epilogue to Far Cry 5. But creative director Jean-Sebastien Decant said in a video posted to Twitter that there’s more to the game than a new look and setting.

“We pushed what we call the ‘light RPG’ approach in the game to create more depth,” Decant said. “You’ll be able to craft guns that have ranks, and these ranks, they will be useful to fight against enemies that also have ranks.”

“We have the brand-new Prosperity home base in which you will be able to rally your characters and invest in order to get better upgrades.”

There is also a new “escalation system” for outposts. Anyone that has played a Far Cry game will be familiar with the routine of clearing outposts: you kill all the baddies, and suddenly the outpost is liberated and the good guys move in.

In Far Cry New Dawn you will have the choice to assume control of the outpost and its resources and opt to “squeeze it” instead.

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“If you squeeze it, you’re going to abandon it,” Decant explained in the development video. “Now that it’s vacant, the enemy is going to come back, put more resources in it, and also more defence, and create a new challenge.”

The escalation system sounds like it will add replayability and extra challenge to the game, which can only be a good thing.

However, the rinse-and-repeat nature of liberating outposts in previous Far Cry games has gotten boring pretty fast, so let’s hope that Ubisoft adds some interesting gameplay mechanics and not just more baddies to shoot at.

Far Cry New Dawn will usher in a new dawn for the franchise when it’s released on February 15 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.